Commander 147

[Commander 147]

So exited for you Jerry! She is beautiful. Have you booked the photographer with chase boat and drone for the to document her first sail? We are expecting no less.

I have not booked them yet Mike but I have a good friend who lives on the lake I will initially put her in who should be able to get some sailing pics for all of us. I will get in touch with him and see if we can make that happen. He sails an Ensign and has an old wood motor boat and an airplane (a Lake seaplane) so he should be able to help me out with one or all three methods!

[Commander 147]

ebb


Thank you for your kind words. Actually I had told the admiral no breaking of champagne on her bow because I did not want to damage her after all this hard work. So we will probably skip that part. Plus I don't want glass getting into trailer tires of mine or someone else either.


I am lucky living in Florida where most groundings are soft so that is a really good thing. Destiny had plenty of hard groundings with the previous owner. I think she will appreciate me and Florida.


And I am really looking forward to fair winds singing in the sails aloft. That is the music I most enjoy when I am sailing.

[Commander 147]

When we built our house. My wife and I were both working full time (her 50 hours a week and I was working 60 hours a week) and we still spent 40 to 50 hours a week building our house. It took us 2 years to get to a point where we could move in but we were not done. We did not have doors on our cabinets, there was a large section of ceramic tile that was not laid yet and a lo of little things still needed doing. but we were so tired after 2 years of doing nothing but working every hour we were awake that we did not care. We moved in an slowly finished the remaining items.


My plan is to splash Destiny this coming weekend and while there are a lot of things trying to interfere with that plan I am really hoping to pull it off. If I do there are several small things that are not done but I have been waiting long enough and I really don't care if she is not 100%. She will get finished just like our house did but I will enjoy sailing her before she is 100% complete.


As you will see in this first picture the shelves above the v-berth have not been finished. My goal was to make face frames and hinged doors with cane inserts for ventilation but too many other projects pushed their way to the front of the line. I've started making fiddles for them but only one is completed and the other is only started. But it will not stop me from sailing her so it can get finished at a later date.


My wife has a custom window treatment business and lately she has been doing a quite a few marine related projects for me and my friends. She made trapezoid shaped cushions for Destiny that allow us to sit on the quarter berths and lean back against them. They work really well as you can see in the pictures below.

[mbd]

Jerry, I wish I lived close by - I'd be down there helping you with this final push!! I hope you can pick up on all the positive mojo vibes being sent your way...

[Commander 147]

Jerry, I wish I lived close by - I'd be down there helping you with this final push!! I hope you can pick up on all the positive mojo vibes being sent your way...

Mike thanks positive mojo vibes are seriously appreciated.

[Bisquit]

I like the strong back. I may need to add one to my wish list. I hope the next picture I see of this fine yacht she is under sail.

[Commander 147]

I like the strong back. I may need to add one to my wish list. I hope the next picture I see of this fine yacht she is under sail.

Phil


You are right the next picture will be of Destiny sailing. But if you are serious about a strong back for Bisquit there is a copy of the design the structural engineer did for me on Destiny's post # 126 here.


http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...nder-147/page9

[Bisquit]

Thanks. I will check it out.

[Commander 147]

Friday morning we headed to Lake Harris to launch Destiny. The drive was a long hour getting there but it was none eventful (read that as great).


Stepping the mast and preparing to launch was a long drawn out process that took 2-1/2 to 3 hours to complete. Something tells me I will do this process only when I have to and avoid moving the boat in and out of the water as much as I can. While I was setting her up I had a couple of people drive up to her and tell me how she was a beautiful boat. One was a sailor that had to take pictures to send to his buddy.


After she was ready I backed her up to the ramp to just before the point where the ramp started sloping down significantly. We blocked the tires and removed the coupler from the truck so we could put the tongue extension in place. After that was in place I started backing her down again when I heard STOP! from Tony who was helping me launch her. He said I needed to see what was happening. So I put it in park and climbed out to see the extension had twisted to a 45 degree angle and only one of the tires was on the ground and it was on its side. Seems the torque of pivoting does not do well with the very short axle on the extension. So we once again blocked the tires and jacked up the front of the trailer so we could get the extension sitting on both wheels again. After that we just backed perfectly straight back and all went well.


The entire time we were setting her up to go into the water I was concerned that we might not have enough depth to get her off the trailer. Turns out we did but not by a large margin. It will be real interesting to see how well we are able to float her back onto the trailer.


So we finally floated free and I kicked the electric aux. into reverse and drifted back enough to pull over to a side dock where we could finish rigging before going off sailing. Where we parked her temporarily the wind was blowing her towards the dock. So when it was time to leave we walked her back around the corner of the dock and pointed the bow into the wind. We pushed off from the dock and I put the throttle into forward and nothing happened! So now the wind is blowing us up the ramp and the elec. drive does not want to go forward. I shifted the throttle into reverse and that worked but only put us headed into the ramp even faster. So I switched it back into forward and finally she decided go forward and we were off. I'm not sure what caused the issue but I will be having a talk with the folks at Electric Yacht come tomorrow morning about it.


We headed out of the lagoon that the ramp is located in and hauled up the main and started sailing. Winds were light so my wife took the tiller and I went forward to finish rigging the furler so I could hoist a head sail. got that working and we hosted the jib. That doubled our speed. Picture #1 below is shortly after the jib went up. But the marina we were headed to from the ramp was an 8 mile as the crow flies distance away. And the wind was coming from the direction we needed to go. And after a while of tacking back and forth to head upwind some very dark storm clouds started building on shore. We watched them for a while and then the calm before the storm hit us. The wind died completely and the water was glass smooth. So we dropped sails and started motoring towards the marina. The longer we motored the closer the storms got. So we kicked her into high gear and headed as fast as we could for the marina. The storms kept getting closer and closer and we were watching heavy rain on the water behind us. The wind started gusting well into the 30MPH range and we were being blown bare poles towards the marina as fast as we could motor. We would run up the 3' rolling waves the wind had whipped up and surf down the other side. The second picture below is before we got into the worst of it. We tied up to the dock just as the rain caught up to us. We were literally tying up as it hit us.


Afterwards we had to drive back to the ramp to collet the tow vehicle and the trailer. As we were driving there we saw emergency vehicles all over the place. We saw a roof that had been blown off and a 4' diameter oak tree that had been blown down onto someone's house. When we got back to the ramp we had just left the third picture is what it looked like. We think it is possible a tornado may have come through the area.


So while our launch day was anything but boring at least for us all ended well and we have been back out sailing the last two days. Now I just need a good 20 Knot wind day to put here through her paces.

[mbd]

Cheers Jerry! Destiny look fantastic out on the water. Well done! Looking forward to all the "under sail" pics.

[Lucky Dawg]

Re pic #2 - a well deserved seat at the helm! Congrats Jerry!

[Bisquit]

She looks great under sail. Fantastic job.

[Commander227]

Congratulations Jerry! Good job pushing thru! So many of these big projects never are seen to completion.
Now get out and sail often.
Mike
C227

[Commander 147]

Well, first chance back from Maine and Destiny and I spent time on the water together again this weekend.

[ebb]

How wonderful for you BOTH.

There is a young man named Jeff here on SFBay...

also together with his Ariel....l

on their way to the Marquesas!

Congratulations ALL.